The best response is to keep the faith, remain calm and remember that a job like this needs someone of Moyes’ qualities to get stuck into it. But sometimes sense and rationale are washed away by a tide of panic and doubt, and that tide is lapping at the gates of Old Trafford.

Because the first possibility of a tipping point comes if United do not finish in the top four at the end of this season.

(Image: Mike Hewitt)

And their spirit-sapping defeat at Chelsea yesterday means they are now six points adrift of Liverpool in fourth place.

And if Everton win at West Brom tonight, they will turn the gap between United and fourth into seven points.

The second leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final against Sunderland on Wednesday is now an awfully big game for all the wrong reasons. If United make the final against Manchester City, it will give Moyes a little breathing space although many United fans may view the prospect of a Wembley final against a rampant City with some trepidation.

But if United cannot ­overhaul their 2-1 first-leg deficit at Old Trafford, then the howls of despair will crack the glass of the executive boxes at the Theatre of Dreams.

United were not ­overwhelmed by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge but they were comfortably beaten.

For brief periods of the first half, they offered occasional threats and hints of cohesion.

Even though we knew the ­transition at Old Trafford would not be easy, when did we ever think we would call a United team ordinary after so many years of domination?

It would be wrong not to mention at this point that Moyes has been deprived of Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie. They might not have looked so impotent with Van Persie leading the attack and Rooney pulling the strings.

But then what does that say about Danny Welbeck? What does it say about the squad bequeathed to Moyes by Ferguson?

We have reached the point now where this season is about one ­dominating issue for Manchester United.

Not winning the title. That’s gone.

No, this season is about Moyes now. It’s about Moyes and whether he can ward off the tipping point.

It’s about whether he can stop the slide and soothe the sense of ­humiliation and dismay that is afflicting United supporters. “This is a project I know I am going to improve,” Moyes said after the match, insisting he was relishing the ­challenge ahead. “But I had hoped I would be in a better position than this.”

Of course, when defeats like this happen, statistics that do not flatter the losing manager emerge. Moyes, it ­transpires, has taken charge of 48 away games in the Premier League against Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and United and not won a single one.

Statistics like that are used to eat away at his ­credibility and to suggest he is not equipped for a top job. Moyes needs to turn perceptions like that around quickly before the mutterings of discontent rise to a clamour.

For now, the suggestion that Moyes should be relieved of his duties still seems foolish and extreme. But things can get away from a man.

A few weeks ago, Alastair Cook was bullish about his determination to stay on as England captain.

Now, after being battered by fortune and Australia, he is less sure.

There were times yesterday, too, when Moyes looked utterly forlorn as he stood alone on the touchline.

It has got to the point where the job he has taken on has started to seem as damned as trying to tame a wild-eyed monster.

“David Moyes, we want you to stay”, rang loudly around Stamford Bridge, except it was not United fans who were singing it.

A slide can be hard to stop. United are seventh and fading. Moyes must not allow them to fall any further or that tide of doubt and panic might just become a flood.